Charity I work for is in a mess and I don’t know where to turn

[Nonky]

Hello
I work for a charity that is a franchise of a much larger charity. My bosses are all volunteers. I have worked here for 10 years but recently things have changed a lot with new bosses etc. Every month my pay is incorrect and when I raise this I get a very angry response (ie the finance person is away, they haven’t received my pay slips (I always send them) etc etc. I have no contract for my current position and the only one I had was from when I was a trainee 10 years ago. I have had no performance management for 4 years and I am now being asked to do things way above my ability. Health and safety in the work place is not up to scratch, our finances are all over the place and money is being spent in ways that I believe are not ethical. I have spoken to our head office who franchise is out who say they are unable to do anything to help as it is up to my volunteer bosses. My volunteer bosses ignore me, tell me not to interfere or just don’t answer me at all. Is there really nowhere I can go with all this? On top of it all I am spoken to in a very sexist way. I am the only paid member of staff.

OMG what a mess. Can you find another job?

I am trying but have to work part time and there is not a lot out there. Also I have the guilt that when I leave the whole thing will close as there's no one to take over that knows what to do meaning the people who receive our charity help will suddenly get nothing. Is there no charity accountability?

Have you tried contacting the Charities Trustees?

Leave. As soon as possible.

I've worked in the sector for 20 years. I've never experienced anything this bad but I have worked for some very weak boards of trustees / directors. It's the worst thing about charities. There really is nowhere to turn.

Even in larger organisations the management structure ends with a bunch of volunteers who only turn up for 2 hours every couple of months.

Are you in a union? If not join one fast. Good luck.

Have you phoned the Charity Commission and asked their advice?

Firstly contact the Chairperson of the Trustee Board, in writing and by registered post.
If no joy then I would contact the Charities Commission (you can do this anonymously if you prefer) and ask them to investigate.

I'm an ex-CEO of a charity and unfortunately have first hand experience of charity trustee boards - many are well meaning individuals but are often ineffectual with zero experience of charity governance sadly.

There is a Charity Commission helpline that you can ring. Does your branch have a separate charity number to the main charity?

Do you know who your founders are? They maybe another source to ask advice from?

Have you spoken to the chair of trustees? If you don’t get any help there then contact the Charity Comission. It doesn’t sound good but neither is it surprising. It’s the natural consequence of running an entire charity on volunteers who don’t really know what they are doing and where it’s not their priority

FUNDERS not founders fogs.

Thank you. I've just had a look at the charities commission website and there seems to be quite a lot I can report i.e. Abuse of charities (e.g. Expensive dinners using charity money etc) but although it's unethical it doesn't seem to be against what they are allowed to do. Who can I speak to about not being paid? What about the way I am spoken to? I have told the chairman (he is totally absent and never replies or even knows what we do) and he ignores it. I've told the trustees - they are all mates and don't want to act on this. I have told the founders of the charity who have told me they cannot step in until we are bankrupt (!). It has certainly opened my eyes to how a lot of these big charities work and i would now only ever donate money to small grassroots charities.

Nonky
Phone the Charity Commission.
They have some lovely staff (part of my day job is auditing charities)
and take a VERY dim view of breaches of employment law by charities.
Get your paperwork in order - payslips, bank statements, emails - date order, newest on top
and then phone up the CC and ask about reporting "non compliance with best practice in employment law"
Have fun

Who have you contacted at the parent charity? Have you put your concerns into writing to the Chair and CEO of the parent charity? If not, that’s the first step.

If they’re spending money on an expensive dinner for the sake of it, not ethical. If they’re spending restricted money on expensive dinners, not acceptable unless it’s accounted for in the funding agreement. Spending money on an expensive dinner with a potential donor who may well in time give you a donation far in excess of the dinner, arguably acceptable.

It’s hard to know how much of a problem this is. What did the last accounts look like? Have you got money in the bank equivalent to at least 3 months operating costs? If so, then it may be that the charity is more stable than it seems.

All you can do is chase your money, tell the right people and get yourself a new job

Thank you. This is all great advice :-)
Thank you so much

The dinners certainly haven't been to promote fundraising! There is an awful lot more going on that I can't write down as too identifying but thank you

The first thing to resolve is the matters that pertain directly to yourself, namely the incorrect pay and lack of performance management.

Write a letter setting all this out, with any calculations of the pay that you believe you are missing. Keep the tone polite, but indicate that you will take next steps if this is not resolved ASAP.

If that letter gets no response, write a second letter and title it 'Letter Before Action'. Set a timescale for a reply. If they don't reply, then begin a small-claims court claim for the money and also report it to the Charity Commission.

This is just my personal recommendation and there may be other, better options, however I have used the two-stage letter approach several times to good effect.